Bekker's Blog by Scott Bekker, Editor in Chief

Tech Data Spins Up New Microsoft Program

Tech Data Corp. on Wednesday launched a new program to help its solution providers expand their Microsoft practices.

The distributor's new initiative is called Microsoft Beyond!, and it includes a rewards program, education, marketing kits and incentives.

"Microsoft has complete solutions, and there's a growing need to take those solutions into market and enable based on a solution, not just on a point product," said Stacy Nethercoat, vice president of Product Marketing, Software and Cloud Services at Tech Data, in a telephone interview.

While Tech Data has always had specialized Microsoft programs running for its partners, Nethercoat said the new effort will be more comprehensive and consistent.

"With Beyond, what's different about it is it's comprehensive across four different Microsoft workloads -- productivity, datacenter, business intelligence and cloud. In the past, we might have attacked productivity for a quarter or two, then we might have moved on to datacenter," she said. "We thought a more meaningful approach would be to pull these all together in a long-term program."

By grouping Microsoft's key SMB products into the four areas, Tech Data and Microsoft executives also hope to encourage partners who start in one area to branch out into the others.

"Our goal is to enable our partners to sell the full stack of Microsoft. Bringing Beyond together the way that we have, virtually any partner can take advantage of it," Nethercoat said.

The Beyond! name stems from the program's prize tiers, which are "Build," "Breakthrough" and "Beyond!" A top prize is a seven-day stay at Club Med, according to a Tech Data flier on the program.

The point system puts the highest value on Office 365 Small Business Premium, which is good for 5 points for every $1 sold. Office 365 Open is worth 3 points/$1, while Open Business/Open Value Commercial sales are worth 1 point per dollar.